On 05/10/2020 22:02, Roger Hayter wrote:
On 5 Oct 2020 at 11:14:36 BST, "John Rumm"
wrote:

On 05/10/2020 10:44, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 5 Oct 2020 09:14:10 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

snip

However for devices that don't move they will normally stick to the one
with the stronger signal.

Assuming that AP was available when the client switched on (but you
covered that with your 'normally'). ;-)

Note you may need disconnect from the current AP before they will
countenance trying the new one!

Or that (and what often happens 'normally' when you power cycle /
unplug-move such devices in any case).

Some clients seem determined to stick to
the AP they are connected to with a crap signal, even when there is a
much better option available.

I can only remember seeing the option in the Windows clients where you
can change the connection order of the client to AP's. More handy for
mobile devices that regularly have access to a group of AP's but
generally are closer to one than the other(s) (like here).

I generally push my 'main' AP to the top of the list, other peoples
AP's (that I visit sometimes) further down and remove any that I know
are obsolete or were one-off's.

That makes sense when prioritising networks rather than individual APs,
since if you have given all the APs the same SSID, then they all look
like the same network.

Presumably all the meshed APs need to share the same encryption secrets so
that the client can continue its connection seamlessly; transferring the data
stream back to the original AP would be very extravagant if they are radio
connected? Do you know if this happens?

They do need to be configured with the same credentials (for at least
one network at least). The data stream does not need to go to the
original AP, although due to the dynamic routing of mesh systems its
possible that it could if that appeared to be the best option.
(especially if for example the original AP is the only one with a wired
connection to the main router).

Many of the mesh systems can only support WPA style shared secret
security rather than individual user based authentication systems like
EAP. (although some of the business class mesh systems do - they are
usually not able to interoperate with the "home" style platforms).


--
Cheers,

John.

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